


metamorphonym

by Anonymous



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Brief Dysphoria, Gen, Just a short snippet, Nonbinary Chara (Undertale)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-24
Updated: 2020-04-24
Packaged: 2021-03-01 22:48:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 213
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23794897
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: "What's your name?", asks the monster, and for all their fear, they can find no malice in the words.
Kudos: 10
Collections: Anonymous





	metamorphonym

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted to Fail Fandom Anon for the prompt "100 words of: a gender-neutral name".

The word burns on their tongue like a coal, like a blade, a hand reaching down their throat until they gag. They freeze and fall silent, trying to swallow the bitter taste of the inevitable. The monster's eyes are wide and bright in the corner of their vision.

But they've been making new choices all day today, from the moment they gathered their things in their pockets and eased open the back door into the dawning day, and they've been taking meaningless risks from the second they stepped off the trail into the brambles and ferns.

They were supposed to disappear. Presumed dead, they had hoped, and there's satisfaction in the picture of that name on the paperwork, missing, never to return.

If they're dead now, then maybe that name is dead, too.

"... it's Chara," they say, thinking of the stars in the old astronomy book from the library, the one too big to check out and hide under the floorboards. They don't know what pulled it to the forefront of their mind, but something feels right, like it's been rolling around inside them for a long time and only now had the chance to step forward.

"Chara? That's a nice name." The monster laughs. "I'm Asriel."

And the world is forever changed.


End file.
